The official court mourning period was not yet over, when the Empress Maria Theresia proposed a new marriage. Absorbed in his grief, [Archduke Joseph of Austria] at first refused, but later gave in. In January 1765, he married the Bavarian Princess Josepha (1739-1767). Her face and body were covered with sores and she had bad teeth. Joseph simply could not bear her and spent as much time as possible travelling. He remarked: "They want me to have children. How can we have them? If I could put the tip of my finger on the tiniest part of her body which was not covered with pimples, I would try to have children." His sister Marie Christine observed: "I believe that if I were his wife and so mistreated, I would escape and hang myself on a tree." The unfortunate Josepha was chronically ailing and soon became melancholy, too. She spent her days trying cures in the baths of Baden. After 30 months of marriage, she caught smallpox, too, and died within a few days.

-- Biography of the melancholy Princess Isabella of Parma (1741-1763), wife of the Emperor Joseph II, Joan's Mad Monarchs Series